Mladenovic and Vandeweghe lose opening matches

MOSCOW: Kristina Mladenovic and Coco Vandeweghe were among six seeded players to make an exit from the Kremlin Cup.

The run of defeats left seventh-seeded Julia Goerges, the world No. 27, as the highest-ranked player remaining on Wednesday.

Top-seeded Mladenovic landed only 49% of her first serves and was beaten 6-2, 2-6, 6-2 by Aliaksandra Sasnovich, while No. 2 seed Vandeweghe lost 7-5, 1-6, 6-2 to Lesia Tsurenko.

Mladenovic and Vandeweghe had both received byes in the first round.

Tsurenko’s reward for beating Vandeweghe is a quarter-final against Goerges, who beat Yulia Putintseva 6-3, 6-3.

Young Russian Natalia Vikhlyantseva put paid to the title hopes of her compatriot, third-seeded Elena Vesnina, winning 7-6 (7-3), 6-4.

Fourth- seeded Anastasija Sevastova lost 6-4, 6-3 to IrinaCamelia Begu.

Injuries also took their toll in a tournament which is the last of the season for many of the players taking part.

Daria Gavrilova, seeded sixth, retired when she was a set down to qualifier Vera Lapko. A day after ousting Maria Sharapova, the eighth- seeded Magdalena Rybarikova pulled out of her match with Alize Cornet after dropping the first set 6-1.

In the men’s Kremlin Cup draw, the third-seeded Frenchman Adrian Mannarino won his second-round match 6-3, 7-6 (7-4) against qualifier Lukas Rosol.